


A Study of Glory

by MercySewerPyro



Series: A Thousand Painted Teeth [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, I love Kal Skirta but the Nulls need their brothers, Mental Link, Pre-Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, possible budding Ordo/Cody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:13:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24023404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercySewerPyro/pseuds/MercySewerPyro
Summary: Even with the ties that bind them together, the Nulls are not keen on their siblings; they've long been told the 'regs' are lesser, less human, less people. Why would they reach out, even now?It'll take someone else to take that divide andshatter it.
Relationships: Null-11 | Ordo & CC-2224 | Cody
Series: A Thousand Painted Teeth [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728298
Comments: 4
Kudos: 136





	A Study of Glory

**Author's Note:**

> Watch as I post 4 times in as many days and then vanish into the ether.

Before this - before everything changed - the divides between siblings had been far starker than a mere lack of ties. They were bound together now, every single trooper; everything had changed in that single, beautiful instant. But true change was never so easy. What they had received would open doors previously closed, but for divides to be crossed, for ARCs to consider Commanders their equals, for Commandos to regard even the CTs with respect, would take work.

It was work the Null ARCs were not eager to put in.

They had been so arrogant then, Ordo reflected, so cruel and selfish. Their leashes were long and never visibly chains; half had died, and the other had come so close, but the Mandalorian who had taken them in looked the other way again and again. Their bullying was praised, even; if they could get away with it, tormenting the ‘regs’ was seen as merely a show of their skill. Deep down, perhaps they knew that this was wrong, that there was not much different between six apex predators and the countless sharp-willed brothers beneath them. After all, they had never given their trust to this Kal Skirta, even as they soaked in his culture, in his training and care. Deep down, perhaps they’d known from the beginning that their successes and their siblings’ failures were merely a roll of the dice.

But they hadn’t cared, not then, still foolish and young and far too proud. They were apex predators, top of the food chain, and they flaunted it. When the connection had flared between them, this shining burning thing, something they  _ couldn’t _ know how to handle- Their so-called lessers had adapted. But for the Nulls, if anything it only made their edges sharper, their self-made segregation more blatant. Their  _ buir _ may have set the foundation for it, but it was the Nulls themselves who had perpetuated it with fierce disdain, all the more intense for the perceived threat.

Even now that selfishness had not really faded, nor had their edges particularly dulled. The Nulls still knew they were the best. But while they had once shied away -  _ afraid, _ not that any of them would have dared to admit it - from the thing that now sang between them and their younger brethren, there was one who would have none of it. There was a Commander who saw the lines between them, and  _ broke them. _

In hindsight, Ordo should have expected the ascension of this one to leader, to  _ alor. _ He had approached them without fear, without hesitation, a furious sunspot of light even among the countless stars that the clones now shone as. He burned,  _ still burns, _ in a way that no one else could match. He had found them all on his own, marching up to them in a flare of anger at their latest wrongdoing, and demanded it end.

They laughed at him, and - still so vicious in their cruelty - had half-ringed him, threatened him with presence alone. He hadn’t even flinched. Only demanded again: no more sibling against sibling. No more lines between. That they recognize they were family in more than just blood; they were the same story, over and over, two hundred thousand children made to die.

...And when they had sneered, when Mereel had lunged just to scare him, the one who would be  _ alor _ had met him without fear, with nothing but well-controlled fury, white-hot beneath the surface. Mereel lunged, intending to teach a ‘reg’ a lesson, and the one who would be king instead taught one to him. There was a crunch of bone, a gush of blood, and he had broken Mereel’s nose in one swift strike.

The silence that had followed had been deafening, even as their batch-brother clutched his dripping nose in shock, even as his mental curses spilled into the link. They could have fallen upon the Commander then, furious and vengeful for the harming of one of their own, for their loss of pride. In another life, maybe they would have, and maybe the Commander would have never had a chance (though, to this day he still surprises Ordo. Maybe, just maybe, he would have simply taught them another much-needed lesson). But the connections that now tied them together revealed intentions far better than anything they had been taught, and the Commander was purposefully open, his mind bared to them.

There was a trust there that had startled Ordo. They had tormented this one and every other trooper this one held dear, and yet he had peeled open his own defences and let them see him as he was. No walls. No barriers. Just the pure, perfect conviction that they would be unified as one, or they would suffer as one. He wasn’t looking for a fight, wasn’t looking to  _ tame _ the unfettered Nulls.

He wanted to understand. He wanted  _ them _ to understand.

He wanted to form something here, some unsteady bond built on hope and the thought that they were the same even as they were different. To not only stop their harm, but to teach them they were not alone.

And even different, even apart, it had been Ordo who had mentally leaned in even as he told his batch-brothers to hold. He was drawn in, lured close not by the differences, but by those similarities: the Nulls would always be wild, half-feral and unpredictable, but- But this Commander had a fierceness of his own, had the same sharp selfishness that screamed  _ ‘this is mine, and I will not let you take it’,  _ merely extended to a family much larger than theirs. His offer was because they were alike. Because he knew them in himself.

The Commander had held his gaze, calm and patient, but Ordo couldn’t miss the smile slipping into the corners of his face as he felt the Null’s mind tick away, as Ordo finally grasped understanding. As Ordo, in one sudden impulse, took a step forward across the divide. It wasn’t an acceptance, not there and then. Nothing would ever be that easy. But Ordo only needed two words to meet this sun-touched Commander on equal ground, and he had seen enough to offer it: “Prove it.”

The Commander’s face had split into a grin, sunshine breaking gloriously through the clouds, and he nodded, sure and firm. “C’mon then. You won’t learn anything hanging around here.”

And if there was anything the Nulls were good at, it was learning. Ordo had fallen into place beside the Commander - never behind, not when he offered that place at his side to the Null with ease - and his brothers, apprehensive and wary, followed.

The rank-and-file  _ surprised _ them over the days to come. The Nulls had long been taught that their younger siblings were lesser: not as independent, not as smart, not as  _ worthy. _ But instead, the CTs were nothing but life- Chained, broken down, but defiant life all the same, in all its variants and quirks. A CT with blonde hair crossing his arms and mimicking the Commander in an attempt to stand up to them despite his trepidation. Another being  _ friendly _ despite their reputation, cracking a joke as he slipped between them, enough to make Jaing and Kom’rk laugh. The two that stood in front of their younger siblings at the sight of the Nulls, so ready to put themselves in danger as long as others got away. And even a medic-in-training, giving a lecture so sharp both the Nulls and the Commander  _ flinched _ as he saw to Mereel’s broken nose.

The lines between them were blurring, breaking. ARCs reached out to teach CTs, and Commanders flitted through all types with increasing ease. Even the Nulls began to stoop to their fellows, and it was many a time Ordo found himself sparring with the Commander who’d dared to do so first. He was still leading the charge, with confidence and glory, and with every fight he grew closer and closer to beating the Nulls that had begun to train him.

It was him who taught the Nulls what the position truly meant, that leadership was not just orders and rank. It was him who taught Ordo how to earn respect, how to  _ understand, _ how to be theirs just as much as they would be yours. In some ways, it was a study of glory, a study of what the Commander was: skilled and stubborn enough to forge the way forward, but with a humility that would always lay the majority of the success at his siblings’ feet.

Even there, a furious, whirling display of a spar, it was Ordo who was thanked for all he could teach. A warmth burning in his chest that his  _ buir _ would never be able to give him: the true praise of a brother, without comparison, without standards.

In the end, it was no surprise that it was the Nulls who named him first.

And when the day finally came that the Nulls responded to news of a brother’s imminent reconditioning with their selfishness and their anger, their claim of  _ ‘this is mine and you will not DARE to take it’ _ , Ordo saw the Commander -  _ their _ sun-touched Commander - grin with pride.

The Nulls had learned: no matter what, the CTs were siblings. They were people. And so, so slowly, the Nulls had begun to see them as family.

And when the time came to choose their  _ vod’alor, _ the one to lead them forward, Ordo put all six of the Nulls’ votes behind their Commander. He had made clear they would accept no other, not when it had been  _ him _ to break the lines drawn between them.

And Kote, Cody, their sun-flare of a Commander, won the vote.

**Author's Note:**

> alor - leader  
> buir - parent  
> vod'alor - sibling-leader, the elected leader of the clones. It has a lot more weight behind it than its literal translation.  
> Kote - Glory
> 
> Look, if Cody can befriend the Bad Batch... He can absolutely befriend the Nulls. And be ten times more terrifying for it.


End file.
